Monday, April 14, 2014

Squatters and Lifters

I would like to say a big, huge, Thank you to my Mom for buying classes for me at Stitches South this year. She sent me a message just before my birthday, offering to buy me a class at Stitches, so I took a look and knew I would love to take about 4. She bought me 2 and then surprised me with 2more. My first class was Getting Started with Japanese Crochet with Gail Roehm. I really appreciate Gail for sharing her knowledge and offering this class. Gail, a knitter and crocheter has spent time in Japan and familar with the language gave her class a wealth of information. If you have ever been on Ravelry and perusing designs, especially free ones, you have seen Pierrot designs. Japanese designs give charts and schematics both of which I love being a visual thinker. She taught us how to interpret the gauge, starting points, and hook sizes among other tidbits.
Here is a bit of my work.....

I also learned about squatters and lifters.... squatters have tight and short stitches. A lifter has nice long or regular length stitches. I am a squatter, I know this because when I crochet a test gauge, I am right on with the width of the gauge but most times I am short on the length. I will strive to be a lifter.